FCC Suspends Filing Deadlines Through Oct. 21

The FCC has reopened for business, including its Web site, which was shuttered during the government deadline, but has suspended all filing deadlines other than network outage reports until further notice.

It had signaled before the shutdown that those filings would be due the business day after the government re-opened, which would have been Oct. 18.

That covers any deadlines during the shutdown and through Oct. 21, the commission said in a note on its now re-opened Web site.

It said it would issue that further guidance "soon" but recommended that nobody file any submissions seeking additional relief until after that guidance is issued.

An FCC spokesperson no comment on why the site had been inaccessible during the shutdown when many other government agency sites were still up, but an FCC source said that the difference was that it did not have carryover funds to pay for maintaining the site, while some other government agencies did.